FEATURED: Rapid Film merged with Path’e and Pathé-Natan, was born the country’s leading studio throughout the 1930s | ‘ Ace World History ‘

La Fémis, the French national film school, occupies a space at number 6, rue Francoeur in Montmartre, Paris. The building is a former film studio, naturally enough. It was built in 1929 for a company called Rapid Film, owned by a man called Bernard Natan. When Natan bought a much more famous outfit, Pathé, he merged the two organisations, and Pathé-Natan, the country’s leading studio throughout the 1930s was born.

Today, there is a plaque at La Fémis commemorating Natan, the founder of the building, a man vitally important to French film history. The plaque, which was unveiled at the end of 2014, states that he died in 1942 at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Between the second world war and the establishment of this small memorial, few people talked about Natan, his sad death, or his contribution to cinema. Many people that did mention his name called him a criminal, or a…

Source: FEATURED: Rapid Film merged with Path’e and Pathé-Natan, was born the country’s leading studio throughout the 1930s | ‘ Ace World History ‘